At Wits End with Sick cat...HELP!

Call the guy who is on the radio on Sundays Am 55WKRC. I think he comes on at 2arround noon to 2. He's great and makes loads of sense. He has helped me allot through the years with my little girl doggy (now gone) as well as kitty issues. Some times he has callers call him at the vets office if he wants to go over things more in depth. You can also email him. Give it a try and Good luck.

We have had some trouble with our cat throwing up frequently. We currently use the Laxatone gel once a day. It seems to help tremendously. It can be purchased at the vet or I think Walmart or Meijer also sells it.

When you say "sick", I suppose you mean throwing up - and that could mean a hairball issues. when they groom themselves, they can't spit out the fur on their tongues. They swallow it until it builds up to the point that they need to cough it up. It comes out with bile/acid from their stomach, sometimes there is more liquid than fur, but it can still be a hairball problem.

The best suggestions I have is to use a food specifically made for hairballs, and to give your kitties a regular brushing. If you read the details of these "hairball remedy" foods, you will see that they help pass the ingested fur through their intestines instead of their mouth. It states that it won't cure all hairballs, but the reduction after a few months of food will be noticeable. I'll vouch for that.

Grooming will also help. If your kitty will allow it, brush it regularly. There are combs and mittens made for this. If you are brave, wash him first. The prior owner of my Joey had him bathed professionally. I can't afford it, so I just brush him.

My kitties are 13 and 14 now, so I know how attached you are. Good luck.

My mom is going through a similar problem with her cat. I would let your mom take him to the vet, maybe there is a new test they didn't have before. If he's 15 he probably doesn't have too much longer anyway, I'd feel terrible putting him to sleep just because he gets sick a couple of times a month!

I'm so sorry to hear about your cat. I don't know if this will help but my mother-in-laws cat was getting sick and they found out it was the kitty litter they were using. It was also an older cat. It seemed to be the dust from the litter. NOt sure if this will help or even what it could be but thought I'd let you know.
C.

My mom's cat will throw up soon after eating. So my mom only gives her a little at a time and in the garage and if she gets sick, its not on the carpet. For the most part it helps, she doesn't get as sick as often. Hope this helps.
L.

D.,
We have a Cat who is 15 or 16 years old too her name is patches I don't know if she has food allergies or not but she does throw up a lot as well what we have found is if we stick to the same food and only give her a very small amount at one time she does much better. She will beg for more sometimes but we just pet her and don't give in every time I go into the kitchen she will sit at her bowl and if it's been over an hour or two I give her a tablespoon more.
Good Luck
M.

I had a similar situation about 10 years ago. We had a wonderful cat for 13 years. He developed a sinus infection which turned into a nightmare. The infection was eating away his sinus cavities at a slow rate. He wasn't in pain (that we could tell), but sneezed a lot (especially when he purred), and every time he sneezed, he sprayed this horrible smelling discharge. The vet said he was healthy other than the sinus problem and could live another five years at the rate it was progressing, but I got to the place where I didn't want to pet him because he would purr and sneeze on me. I felt bad, but it was the right decision to put him down, because he didn't understand why I was avoiding him and cried for my attention, and I couldn't give it to him. I know it's hard (I cried for days), but it was better than living with the guilt I felt for mistreating him.

Hi D.,

You should take your cat to the vet again. I wouldn't have him put to sleep unless the vet can't help him and he is in pain. I have had 4 cats who lived past 18 years old and were still playful at that age. My current kitty is 12 years old. She also gets sick frequently. She has had some kidney infections. The vet puts her on medicine and she always gets better. It could also be heat sensitivity. She tends to get sick whenever our room temperature gets above 82 degrees. I keep the air conditioner or a fan running for her when it is too hot. It might also help to limit your cats meals to night time when it tends to be a little cooler. My cat weighs about 8 pounds and I was advised to only give her half a small can (the 3 ounce size cans) of wet food and about half a cup of dry food per day. I feed her at night and in the morning most of the food is gone. She has water available to drink anytime day or night. If you can't remove your cat from the carpeted room, you can cover the carpet with a tarp sheet. We put a tarp over our carpet at night and when we go out. That way we can just wipe the tarp clean and nothing gets on the carpet. During the time the carpet isn't covered if you notice your cat getting sick remove him to an easier to clean up location. Tell him it is okay to get sick on the floor or in the litter box. It sounds funny, but it worked with my cat. She also looks so sad after getting sick. I can sometimes just tell my cat to go to the hallway floor or her litter box (whichever she is closer to) and get sick and she will. My cat sometimes has hairballs in the summer so I give her hairball cat food once every two or three days in the summer after she has thrown up one. I also only feed her the vet recommended cat foods. (Like Hills, Royal Canan, Iams...) I've actually heard that many of the cheaper dry foods contain sand as fillers. I wouldn't want to eat sand and can only imagine what that might do to the stomach... It can get expensive, but after all my cat is a member of my family. I hope your cat feels better soon.

D.

You should take him back to the vet. My sister's cat was throwing up and losing weight. The vet thought it was a giant hairball that needed to be surgically removed, and during the surgery to remove it, found out it was actually a shoestring - which would have killed her if not removed. A friend's cat has a cyst that keeps developing in her ear - which causes it to throw up until they remove the cyst at the vet (he said the cyst acts like an ear infection and causes dizzyness and nausea). Another friend's cat is going through kidney "failure" - I "quote" that because this issue has come and gone for the last few years - and he keeps getting sick when he is having an episode. My nephew's dog had epilepsy and a friend's dog had cancer (in it's mouth) - both caused vomiting. All of these animals acted normal except when they were sick (or close to death in a couple of cases.) It could be almost anything, but it is worth a few more tests to see if it is treatable before putting your cat down.

D.,
I am a cat lover and a 9 yearold cat is relatively young to me as my dear "Smokey" was 22 1/2 years old before he had a stroke and had to be put to sleep. He had a problem with throwing up canned food so I put him on a indoor formula hard cat food and he was a inside all the time cat and he stopped throwing up.I grew him kitty greens which can be purchased at places like petco or petsmart.Not the cat nip but greens, basically I think it was just grass seed that grew , I kept it near his water bowl and when his tummy got upset he ate some of it on his own.No more throwing up.
Cats are Carniverous, meat eaters and commercial cat food is mostly grains with meat flavoring but very little real meat.
You could try to find the cat a new home that could take proper care of it.But please don't put him to sleep just because he gets sick and you can't deal with it.At present I have 10 cats, 6 that are kittens nearly ready to be weaned, my other 4 are like my children, I am keeping one of the kittens as he is extra tiny and was born with no heart beat but I brought him back and he is thriving.One of my other 4 has diabetes, but I would never give her up for any reason no matter how bad things would get.
Perhaps you should try a new vet .
Debbie

Hi - I have had this problem - a cat with food alergies is not fun. I had to feed my cat Science Diet Prescription food - Venision and no it was not cheap. However, my vet had me try putting a spoonful of plain yogurt in the food once a day. You would believe how much this has helped. Now my guys do have a throw up session at least once a month it is either from Hair ball or gorging on food - which is caused by having a hair ball -

Try putting plain yogurt in the food - and don't feed more then 1/2 cup of dry food at a time and if you feed canned don't if it is a big can only give 1/2 at a time. Hope this helps you some.

I would take him back in to the vet and have him checked again. A lot can change in 9 years (I think that is when you last had him checked for this issue). And vetrinary medicine has also changed a LOT in 9 years. At 15 he is starting to get up there in years, I had a cat that I had had since a kitten and had him until he was 18 and he got sick (threw up) a lot also when he got up there in years.

You could also try giving him some canned food and that might help as it is much easier to digest than dry food. Talk to your vet about what is going on and see what he says.

I don't believe that putting him down at this point would be the right decision and you are actually probably only thinking about that just because you are frustrated. I do believe that if you chose to put him down at this stage that you would feel extremely guilty about it.

Good luck and I am sure that you will make the right decision for your family.

Does your cat have a name? When you are speaking of him, he doesn't even sound like part of the family. You should NOT put him to sleep unless the vet says he is suffering and would be better off. I'm sure you could find him a home that had time for him. Maybe he has developed an allergy to the food he has been on for years. That can happen. If you put him to sleep, you will regret it.

Our 10 year old cat is pretty much the same way. I had her on the Hills Prescription food and that worked for awhile, but then she started vomiting more frequently. We recently switched her to the Science Diet Sensitive Stomach. They have some $5 off coupons on their website right now too. Although she still vomits every other week or so it is much less frequent than before.

Please do not put a happy cat to sleep because its an inconvenience to you. I understand its frustrating but remember this cat has given you 15 wonderful years and needs more attention now but in no way is ready to leave this world. Try another vet visit to see if there is anything else you can do but either way be there for him and help him live a long happy life.

We have a cat that does that every once in awhile. I know it is because he would rather bug us for people food then eat his own. He will wait until he is starving and then go eat and eat too fast and then throw it up! It drives me nuts!! I always know it is because he eats it too fast because when I clean it up there are whole pieces. He dosen't chew it up enough! And he usually does it within a few minutes of getting done eating.
I don't know that a prescription diet is the answer. Depending on what brand it is, there may be alot of fillers and by-products in it that can upset the stomache. Maybe the more natural hollistic foods that are out there maybe easier to digest. I used to work for a pet store and never really cared about what we fed our cat before I started working there. We used to just buy the cheap stuff at the grocery store. But after working there, I was more conscience of the ingredience. Good Luck!

I highly recommend getting a second or even 3rd opinion if possible. Not to say that your vet is inadequate but someone with a new perspective or different set of experiences might provide more options. Take the results of all the tests that has been done and you might save on repeat tests. You could try a cat only vet too; they may offer more feline diets and tests than a mixed animal practice does.

Sometimes, different diets need to be tried for their efficacy and if your cat doesn't like it or it doesn't work for him, you can always return the used bag for a full refund (most prescription diet companies take them back from the vet and reimburse them). Manufacturers often leave diet samples at the vets for people to try too.

I hope this helps in some way.

I agree that another trip to the vet might be in order. But, I have a cat that does this. I have to give her several small meals a day. She seems to gorge herself and throw it all back up. I also found that giving a hairball medication once a day has helped. We've also put our cat in the bathroom for about an hour at feeding time. It limits her mobility if she does vomit and it's such a short time.